Have you been in the corporate world for a while?
Have you been wondering about consulting?
Would you like to learn more?
Here are the top seven things to know about starting your own consulting business. We’ll dive deeper into each one.
1. It’s easier than you think to get started
It’s easier than you think to start consulting. All you need is a computer, a phone, brainpower and business experience. The work is the same as the work you’ve been doing in your corporate job only better. If you start right away, you can be doing billable work as soon as next week.
2. Then it takes hard work and risk
Although it’s shockingly easy to get started, a solid consulting practice is built through hard work and a willingness to take risk. Treat it like a business.
3. Work in an area where you have deep experience
Work in an area where you have deep experience and expertise. Going independent is not the time to conquer a new industry or area of expertise. People buy your experience. They hire you because you’re an expert.
Many consultants start off with a bang only to hit the doldrums two to three years in. Don’t fool yourself into thinking your business will build itself just because you have projects for the first several months. When I first started my practice, I was fully engaged for the first few years. I thought, “Wow, this is easy.” Then I hit a long dead zone. I realized that I had been working off the pent-up demand from all the people who knew me. Start marketing day one and never, ever stop!
5. Never let a day go by without doing something to bring in business
Doing billable work is the easy part. Keeping the pipeline full is the hard part. Never let a day go by without doing something to bring in business.
I love being a consultant. The advantages are freedom, flexibility, control, interesting and engaging work, good pay and sometimes equity. You rarely get caught up in company politics and nearly all your work is direct value add.
On the minus side, there is no regular pay check, no benefits, no IT department, no $100 million start-up hit and no one to blame but yourself if something goes wrong.
The Days Are Long but the Years Are Short
This is often said to parents in the early years, but it applies to all of us. Especially when we’re deeply entrenched in the corporate slog. I always worry when someone tells me they have a plan to start their consulting business in a few years. It doesn’t happen unless you make it happen. Life gets comfortable and then all of a sudden, ten years have gone by.
“Happiness is a journey, not a destination. For a long time, it seemed to me that life was about to begin—real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life. This perspective has helped me to see there is no way to happiness. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment you have and remember that time waits for no one.”
Alfred D. Souza
Writer, Philosopher
Be Billable at the Beach®
The mission of Billable at the Beach® is to help you find the courage to start your own consulting business so you can have the freedom and flexibility to live life on your terms. You can meet or exceed your full-time corporate pay.
The best way to get started as a consultant is to dive in. This FREE EMAIL COURSE will walk you through three action steps to generate revenue now. If you start right away, you can be doing billable work as soon as next week. Following these three action steps gives you the best possible chance of landing a consulting project. It works for me and I see it work for others, over and over again. Take control and take the plunge!
Free Course – 3 Action Steps to Generate Revenue NOW
This is the overview for a series of posts on the Top Seven Things to Know About Starting Your Own Consulting Business. The next post will be about how easy it is to get started in consulting.
Top Seven Things to Know About Starting Your Own Consulting Business